Powerful PooP Battery

Time to show how powerful your poop could be...

Researchers have discovered that bacterias found in human and animal faeces could be used to create a biological battery.

 A bio-battery is a energy storage device that is powered by storage compounds,usually being glucose. It generates electricity from renewable fuels providing a sustained, on demand portable power source.

Some bacteria survive by ‘breathing rocks’ instead - especially minerals of iron.

Researchers of University of East Anglia (UEA) studied that both animals and human waste contain bacteria which breathe minerals of iron,an electrical charge is released as a side effect during this breathing process.

They derive their energy from the combustion of fuel molecules that have been taken into the cell’s interior. A side product of this reaction is a flow of electricity that can be directed across the bacterial outer membrane and delivered to rocks in the natural environment - or to graphite electrodes in fuel cells. This means that the bacteria can release electrical charge from inside the cell into the mineral, much like the neutral wire in a household plug.

Also the scientists looked at proteins called ‘multi-haem cytochromes’ that are contained in a species of bacteria called Shewanella, found in faeces, these had the same traits required for that to produce significant voltage differences.

Lead researcher Professor Julea Butt, from the university’s schools of chemistry and biological sciences, said: ‘These bacteria can generate electricity in the right environment.

This would be a real advancement in research of bio batteries.

 Advantage of this battery would be:

1. Instant recharge

2. Eco-friendly

3. Fuel source ie, faeces readily available
4. Usage of Sewage water, which is usually hard to dispose off.

Nations like India can benefit a lot from this kind of power source, where sewage water disposal is a big issue and already a lot work is being done on it, in the name of Clean India campaigns.